Leaving Me, Loving You
Reviewed by YTSL
I know it’s rather unfair. At the same time,
I’m sure that I’m not the only fan of Hong Kong cinema out there who finds
it next to impossible to not think of Faye Wong’s first movie whenever (s)he
views a film that stars the singer-actress whose appearances on celluloid
continue to be on the sporadic side. So here’s getting the main question
-- for those of like mind who are reading this review -- out of the way by
stating that: To my mind, this 2004 Valentine offering in which Faye plays
a professional party-planner, and Leon Lai (who also co-produced) plays a
roving doctor, is no where close to “Chungking Express” in quality; but comparisons
with the Wong Kar Wai work still don’t appear entirely inappropriate or irrelevant
since there most definitely were aspects of this Wilson Yip helmed film which
brought to mind certain attributes possessed by that magical as well as whimsical
1994 effort.
Chief among these for me is LEAVING ME, LOVING YOU’s looking to serve as
much as a visual promoter of the city in which the movie is set as “Chungking
Express” seems to have been for Hong Kong. For the record, and if the
reactions of the Hong Kong Tourist Association folks I spoke to are a good
gauge, Wong Kar Wai’s most optimistic offering may well be the film that
makes people want to go visit the urban space which is home to Chungking
Mansions, the Mid-Levels travelator, the Midnight Express and also a rendezvous
spot named California post viewing it. Even if not in quite the same
way, I nonetheless do get the distinct sense that more than one individual
might be filled with an urge to head over to Shanghai ASAP post viewing this
Poon Yiu Ming lensed romance that makes Mainland China’s most cosmopolitan
city -- rather than just its two Mainland Chinese leads -- look incredibly
attractive.
Something else that came to the fore early on is it being so that, like with
at least one section of the HKFA Best Picture winner in which Faye Wong figured,
many portions of LEAVING ME, LOVING YOU have a distinctly music video “feel”
to them. Perhaps this is a function of Faye Wong and Leon Lai having
appeared in far more music videos than movies. However, I also do reckon
that it is a reflection on how whole portions of the Mark Lui scored production
are so music saturated, lacking in dialogue and reliant on musical notes
together with quick-fix montages to convey moods. Additionally, there’s
this nagging feeling I have that this Category I offering, at whose center
is on a man and a woman who may love each other yet not be sufficiently compatible,
had to be padded out with such as repeat renditions of “Moon River” -- along
with pregnant pauses as well as multiple mundane scenes that were geared
towards establishing that Leon and Faye are playing “regular folks” here
-- due to it actually not having all that much of a story.
For all intensive purposes, LEAVING ME, LOVING YOU’s main storyline can be
easily enough described as follows: Dr. Chow (Leon Lai at his most winsome
plus winning) and Siu Yuet (the physically striking Faye Wong) break up,
then find their paths crossing once more when a wealthy elder who she was
assigned by his son to plan a birthday party for turns out to have her ex-boyfriend
as his medical adviser cum personal physician. Initially, the two find
themselves at logger heads. This is due in no small part to the good
doctor’s worries that the old gentleman’s heart might not be able to take
the big surprise that is an integral part of Siu Yuet’s plan for the fragile
senior causing her client to hesitate to go ahead with the undoubtedly expensive
as well as extravagant display that she had arranged.
Since it is not a situation that the tender-hearted medico had necessarily
wished for, and not least because he remains very much in love with Siu Yuet
(even while she appears intent on forging a new and more independent path
with little room for him in it), he tries to make amends by doing such as
supplying the almost always stylishly attired femme with information that
she might be able to use to furnish the old gentlemen with the birthday surprise
that he really would love to have. Further proof of Dr. Chow’s continuing
to be enamored by Siu Yuet comes in the form of his paying scant attention
to the attempts at being friendly of a cute traffic cop (played by Jiang
Yihong, an actress who I think bears a marked resemblance to a young(er)
Maggie Cheung). Additionally, in a move which -- once more -- brought
to mind a certain Jet Tone production, albeit with a role reversal twist
involved here, the lovesick fellow goes about engaging in what, outside of
idealistic romantic works, would be looked upon as the kind of “stalking”
behavior that could land its perpetuator in court and even jail...
My rating for this film (...with the warning that
I happen to like Leon Lai): 6.